The Abbreviations "BCE" and "CE"

Dennis Bratcher

The designations BCE and
CE are simply a different way to write the traditional
BC and AD. The basis of our
modern calendar was developed by Christian monks in the Middle Ages who
decided to begin numbering years with the birth of Christ, and designated
the year in which he was born as year "1" (most historians agree that they miscalculated the year and
the actual date of the birth of Christ was between 6 BC and 4 BC by the
present calendar). Years following the birth of Christ were designated
AD, for the Latin anno Domini,
"in the year of the Lord." Years counting backward before year 1 came to be
designated BC, before
Christ (note that there is no "year 0"). These designations were eventually adopted on an almost
global scale. A few religious traditions objected to the religious overtones
of the calendar and so, for example, both Islam and Judaism use a different
numbering of years for religious calendars.

In modern times, in an era of political correctness and multicultural
sensitivity, some tried to find more religiously neutral ways of referring
to calendar years. This was particularly the case in the academic world that
frequently had to use both BC and AD dates in interaction with people that
represented other world religions. So, the designations BCE,
Before the Common Era, and CE, the
Common Era, were adopted in order to retain a long established
way of counting years, and yet remove some of the Christian religious
confession inherent in the traditional designations. Most people still use
the older designations as a matter of accepted practice and convenience, but
especially in international academic writing the newer abbreviations are
common.